Better than a Best Friend
by Sesquipedilism
Summary: It's Hiroki's wedding day and some of the old classmates are going, including his best friend Takako. It seems like it's going to be a great day, until Takako and her boyfriend, Shinji, have a fight before going to the ceremony. Does she love Hiroki?


**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this piece. **

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><p>"Do we have to go?" Shinji groaned, rubbing his forehead to get rid of his head ache.<p>

"Yes! We do! You're one of the groomsmen for Christ's sake! Now hurry up and finish getting dressed!" Takako's heels audibly clacked on the floorboards of her apartment as she marched over to her boyfriend, who was sitting on the bed with pants unzipped and his shirt only half done up. He continued to rub his forehead and moan grumpily, she let out an exasperated grunt and gave him a whack on the head.

"Ow!" he winced. "Alright! I'm getting dressed! Don't start hitting me just because I don't want to wear this monkey suit." He slowly started doing the buttons on his shirt.

"I don't see why you're so apathetic about going. You've been Hiroki's friend for years and you don't want to go to his wedding? Hell, you were the one who told him Kayoko's name! Just suck it up like a big boy and wear the suit. Hell, you don't hear me complaining about this bridesmaid dress." Takako grabbed Shinji's tie and started doing it up.

"I just don't like going to weddings. They're long and tedious and in the end every one's pissed and singing as loudly as humanly possible and the bride starts crying about how no one pays attention to her. It's the same old shit every time. Remember Yuki's wedding?" Takako couldn't help but cringe when he mentioned _that_ unfortunate day. For as long as she lived she'd never forget how many times she had to tell that creepy unknown guest that she was in a relationship, or long it took to clean the vomit out of her shoes.

"And besides," Shinji continued. "We're all going to have to go through the same shit in the next few months when Shuu and Nori tie the knot. And I can't avoid skipping that one, there's more than one groomsman but there's only one _best_ man."

"But you don't understand!" Takako tightened the tie around Shinji's neck a little too tight for his liking.

"Ow! Babe, could you loosen that up a little?" But she ignored him.

"I have to go today! It's Sugi's big day and he's probably going to be an absolute mess beforehand. I need to be there."

"Hey, he's a man now, he'll be fine. You don't have to help him through the nerves."

"But it's not just the nerves. I have to go for my sake too." Takako zipped up Shinji's pants. _Well there's a strange feeling, usually she's unzipping them _he thought, but knew his girlfriend well enough to not say out loud.

Takako avoided eye contact with Shinji and kept on talking. "I have to go today, this is just as important for me as it is for him." She bit her lip and let out a small sigh.

Instantly Shinji realised that the conversation got a lot more serious and frowned. "What do you mean by that?" She continued to avoid his gaze as she stood up to get his jacket, but before she could get very far he grabbed her hand. "Taka, look at me."

Her eyes finally met his, and if he didn't know her any better he'd have said there was nothing wrong. But he did know her, and he saw that she was hiding something. "What is it?" He stared at her intently, and a flicker in her eyes instantly gave it away.

His face went white and he slowly dropped his hand. "You're in love with him."

"What?" Takako was bewildered. "What the hell are you saying? Have you gone crazy?" Her voice was a little more high-pitched than usual and her facial expressions seemed a little too forced.

"You heard me. You're in love with him. For fuck's sake Taka, don't lie to me."

"I'm not in…! He's my…! He's been my friend since… I'm not in love with him okay!" She walked off and threw Shinji's jacket at him. "Now finish getting dressed."

"Oh fuck no!" Shinji followed her, trying to keep his cool but anger couldn't stop bubbling up in his stomach. "Takako, look at me."

"What?" She turned to face him.

"I know you. You're close to Hiroki. You're very close. Even in high school you two would share secrets that none of us knew about, hell I still don't know what you two got up to. Nowadays when you go out with Hiroki, just the two of you, I let it slide only because he's my friend too. But do you know how weird it is telling people at work that my girlfriend went out with another guy? Have all of your "friendly dinners" been more than that? What am I missing here?"

"Okay, fine. You wanna know something? I was in love with Hiroki. But notice my use of the past tense. I _WAS_ in love with him, but I'm not now."

"Really? So you don't want to go to this wedding for a bit of closure? So you know it's over? So in the next few months you can think about it bitterly. How long were you going to wait before you finally decided that you were going to break up with me then?" Shinji spat these words out, he didn't even think once about the small box that was in his pants pocket.

Takako's face darkened. "Do you really think I'd do that to you? You wanted the truth and now that you have it you think that I… Oh god! You just don't understand! You never understand when it comes to Hiroki!"

"No I don't!"

"Well then allow me to enlighten you: Hiroki Sugimura is my best friend, and has been so since we were eight years old. Yeah, okay so maybe there was a short stint in high school when I was in love with him, but when he finally asked out Kayoko and when you stopped being completely intolerable I moved on and totally go over it."

"You're over it huh? So why is it oh so important that you go?"

"Because he's my best friend!"

"Oh whoop-de-fucking-do he's your best friend. Any other reason?"

"Does there have to be?"

"Depends." They stood in silence for a moment. Shinji breathed heavily to try and stay in control while Takako just stared him down with her furiously beautiful eyes.

Eventually Takako broke the tension by looking at her watch and grunting in frustration. "Okay look, we need to be there in twenty minutes, and I don't have time to argue with you right now. So be in the car in two minutes or I go without you." She snatched her floral hair-clip that matched the bridesmaid dress and rushed out of the apartment.

Shinji just stood there for a moment, debating whether or not he should actually go. He put his hand in his pocket and took out a small box. He tossed it about in his hands before going into his room and putting it in his bedside drawer. He grabbed his jacket and went to the front door, swinging it open and instantly stopping.

"Fuck." He muttered. He went back to his bedside drawer and stuffed the box into his pocket while rushing out the door.

He was just in time to catch Takako before she went out of the driveway. Without a single word being spoken he opened the passenger seat door, hopped in and Takako drove away.

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><p><strong>You know the drill: Please review, tell me if it's good or shit. Chapter 2 coming soon. <strong>

**Also, keep an eye out for any new BR crossovers, because I'll be publishing something there in the next few days (hopefully before the end of the week)**


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